“Trail Animals in The Desert” Sitting on the plane heading back to New Hampshire two days after the race its much easier to reflect on it less emotionally. Immediately post race there was a feeling of elation, the following day some feeling of disappointment. Now, at 39,000 feet, I can better come to terms with both feelings. Intro- Across the Years is a 24 Hour race (for me, there were also 48 and 72 hour self torture options but I took the one most realistic to my “talents”) over a 1.05 mile course that’s fully supported with food and drink. You run the loop, you get 1.05 miles and keep going - the numbers add up. All seems so simple. I flew out with my friend Mike Saporito based on plans and talks we had around a year ago. For both of us, it was a chance to step up to new amounts of time on our feet and mileage to prepare for our 100 mile races in 2013. My goal for the race was a minimum of 72 miles, with an outward goal of 100 miles. 100 miles would have to be perfection, no issues and a tough mental state of mind. The plan was also to be on my feet for the whole or majority of the 24 hours. There was no way to get to 100 miles if I didn’t and for the 2003 100 mile races that would be a necessity. The loop was about 50% on the outside road and 50% on the inside path of the Camelback Ranch facility, where the Dodgers and White Sox play their spring training ball. The majority of the course was on hard packed dirt with loose pebbles on it and the remainder on cement. In essence it needed to be treated like a road race. More on that later. There was an aid station once per loop with cold food, hot food and drinks. At the start/finish line tv monitors were set up and an ankle strap you wore electronically updated your results and you saw them as you passed (place/name/miles/last lap time). It was a first class operation, as those results also flashed online for those viewing in addition to a tv camera showing live shots on the web. So after the set up, the race…Hours 0-4- Mike and I ran the first 11 miles or so together, and we commented on how our 10:45 average pace may be a bit much knowing how long a day it was going to be so we both attacked the course in the way we were comfortable. I set it up in 4 sections, and alternated running and walking them. Only issues early on were tight quads and stomach cramps. I knew it was way too early to worry but wished I felt 100% so early in the race. I finished the 4 hours with about 21 miles. Hours 4-8- I continued my pattern of run/walk and stopped in to eat most laps, taking a lot of fruit and sometimes candy I had brought. The stomach issues started to ease off as well as the quad issues. The weather warmed up and it was really nice at first with a cool breeze in one direction of the loop. Eventually towards the end of the 4 hour segment, the wind died down and I noticed it was warmer all the time so I made sure to drink well. Milestones during this section were a 5:15 marathon and a 6:20 50k (a 50k PR by 10 minutes). I changed shoes once from my Hoka Bondi B’s to my Montrail Rockledges as I thought I felt a hot spot developing. 17 miles completed during this segment.Hour 8-12- As it started to get closer to dark I grabbed my phone to call home and check in and check email. Support from the family, friends and the Trail Animals Running Club was great. No doubt after getting all that encouragement this period was my best of the race. The temps started to drop and the sun was easing off and it was all about moving. New hot foods continued to be rolled out by the race crew, and I tried to grab what I could to make sure I was eating right. A cool selection of southwest foods and French toast were available already during the day. I started to spend more time with other runners as it made the time go by. Most memorable during this period were 5 miles I ran with Jennifer Bradley- who last summer had finished The Race Across America on Trails and The Ultra de Mont Blanc. While she told me of her experiences I knocked off over 5 miles that hour including food and bathroom breaks. Those were the only laps I ran with no walking after the first 11 miles of the day. Noticable accomplishment during this time was a 10:50 50 mile split- a PR for that distance by 50 minutes. I finished the 12 hours with about 55 miles, still an outside chance for 100 miles. On the downside, blisters on my right foot had been getting worse so I changed shoes again. 17 miles completed during this segment.Hours 12-16- I started this period by working on my feet. Again, I couldn’t get rid of the blister pain so I put on a third pair of shoes, this time road shoes. It sort of made sense and I was sorry I didn’t start this way, this was a road course, hard, packed and unforgiving. Running most of the time on trails with no long runs on pavement may have helped tenderize the feet a bit. Including feet work time I had my slowest mile so far, 35 minutes to start this period. I was mainly just walking now with occasional spurts of short jogs as the pain made it unpleasant to run. I still was able to keep reasonable paced laps. Shortly into this period my garmin died so I wasn’t able to track my overall pace, though I could get my per lap time as I passed the start finish. Frankly, this far past the race I don’t remember a thing about the lap times after the watch died. The medical tent was full each time I passed and finally after about 14 hours it was free so I stopped in for a blister check. Application of a layer of second skin and taping by the EMT was all they could do; with a warning it was going to get worse. The medical tent was packed all day from blister sufferers. I started up again and at first it didn’t help much but then all of a sudden I felt a hot flash in my foot and the pain was almost gone so I was able to pick up the walking pace. From here it was all walking. I spent some time with “Frozen Ed” Furtaw, of the Barkleys Marathons fame and some 72 hour racers from the UK. I don’t have a clue where I ended up mileage wise during this period….Hours 16-20- Cold. I didn’t give enough respect to the 30 degree temps and started to feel it. I also wasn’t eating properly and early on this section I got very queasy and when trying to eat felt even worse so I sat at our tent for a few minutes to recover. After trying to get up, I was shivering uncontrollably and managed to stagger to the warming tent. I was done. Nauseous and freezing I didn’t want to go on and was looking for Mike to see if he wanted to leave. I couldn’t locate him, but then heard him yell to me from the start line that he was moving again himself. I sort of owe Mike my mileage for the rest of the race since his pushing on when feeling down motivated me to get back out. I put on a heavier coat, ate and grabbed food, and then started to walk a bit very slowly. Eventually I was able to walk at a fast pace and started to knock off more miles for the next few hours. Somewhere around 19.25 hours, I started to feel sick again. I had been drinking soup and hot chocolate but no solid food and I stumbled into the warming tent as soon as I finished my current lap. My feet were killing me and I was beat up. I was 77.6 miles in and took a break.Hours 20-24- I laid on the floor and put my feet up- Mike had also come in and did the same. I may have napped, maybe not but the rest felt pretty good. But I was toasted good. I may have been able to overcome the inner cold and exhaustion but at this point the front of both feet were shredded and walking was brutal. I decided to call it a day. I stayed in the warming tent for hours, though it wasn’t so warm and finally limped out in the daylight. No miles here. In the end, I was thrilled with everything I did through 20 hours. It got tough, I reacted, adapted and pushed through. Of course there is regret for not pushing on for more miles during the final section but a few days later with both feet recovering form blisters and pain in each feet in different locations I can live with it. 77.6 miles and 20 hours was 24 miles and over 6 hours more than I had done in the past. I think the final downfall was poor nutrition during Hours 16-20. if I didn’t need to stop and recover from the queasiness, I think I could have kept working through the blister pain. Once I stopped, the mental battle was lost to start up on them knowing the pain to come. ATY is a great event with amazing support and people, both from a participant and administration level. I totally prefer trail races, but this is an event I will be at again some day. Some pix pre-race, a but outside of the city limits, and race day and the course: http://tuco.smugmug.com/Racing/Across-The-Years-24-Hour-Race/27357486_7Gbc5F#!i=2299831995&k=Z4bs5Pc

A year of running, sweating, cramping, tapering, failing and succeeding comes down to one last effort, the Across the Years 24 Hour race on December 29 http://www.aravaiparunning.com/acrosstheyears/. On one hand I don’t fear this race since its 24 hours on an approximate one mile loop, so even when exhausted there aren’t any concerns of hills, roots and rocks. Just keep moving and add up miles. On the other hand, I’ve never been moving for more than 54 miles and 13 hours and 45 minutes so the other 10 hours and additional miles are a total unknown that I suspect are going to be much harder than can be imagined. Mike and I head for Arizona on the 27th, with an extra day for race prep and planning. As a new experience in ultra running, I am looking forward to this race- but its also a necessary training tool for the Bear 100 next year. That race will require mountain training, in addition to time on feet. This is the first step to time on feet training. Maybe the most exciting part of this race will be the start of 2013; first for some rest and then getting going with the Bear training.

I wrote several race reports in my head during last weeks Stone Cat 50 Mile race. The basic premises were, just glad to be here, why I failed, and then thank god I finished. The good news is only the first and last sentiments will actually be part of my actual report. It was Friday night before the race and sitting in the hospital at 6:00pm with my wife as I was typing an email to friends saying I would not be joining them at the race when she turned to me and said go home and get ready for your race now. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but considering she was losing memory to a concussion, it was the last thing I expected to hear or wanted to do. Long story short, after a lecture and prodding I drive home and finished packing and preparing for the race and the 3am wakeup call.

I wasn’t fully engaged on the trip to Willowdale but as I spent more time waiting for the race to start with friends Mike and Dean I started to get motivated. Running into more running friends in the gym, Todd, Mike, Scott, Shari and others I cant recall, the scene started to feel good- this is the fun part of all the work, getting together with our fellow warriors to battle it out with the trails (yeah ok, a bit dramatic).

All year my racing basically stunk, a lot of DNF’s (did not finish) surrounded by a couple of PR’s but not nearly enough consistency. The Stone Cat 50 was the first race that I had to finish, had to put in a maximum effort or deem the year of training wasted.

We went outside early to wait for the start- and finally a sea of headlamps came out of the gym. We missed the pre-race speech and apparently the marathon was going to start 15 minutes later so the 50 milers stepped up onto the field behind the Doyon School and we were off.

The race is a 4 x 12.5 mile loop with almost 2,300 feet of elevation gain in total. My only goal was to finish in the 12:30 time limit- I hadn’t run well enough all year to expect any kind of faster time but only a few years into ultra’s and my second 50 I would be thrilled to cross the finish line in time.

Loop 1- Miles 0-12.5

Starts are fun. For this race, no pressure, we walked across the field and I waited as the better runners (basically everybody) filed into the single track trail. Over the first few miles the main hills on the course are encountered, and I walked slowly up and down until we came out onto the main trail. I saw good friend Mike up ahead and checked my watch to be sure I wasn’t too fast yet. I was right on pace with a lot of easy running ahead. The main task on the rest of this loop was to eat, drink and manage my pace. I had to walk on occasion to slow down as some of the easier trail and early race excitement had me pushing too fast. The sun came up, the weather was cool and comfortable and I cruised into the field and the loop 1 turnaround passing by friends and enjoying the day. 2:30 Lap 1.

Loop 2- Miles 12.5-25

I headed back on the field to start loop 2 and as soon as I hit the trails something felt off. Actually, everything did. My legs started to feel dead, my chest hurt, I had a pain in my eye and I just wanted to go to sleep. Up and down the hills, it continued. I started to talk to myself- I was shocked how badly I felt and the quit talk started. Not just the race, but Ultra’s. I felt that bad. My pace started to drop off quickly and realized if this kept up quitting wouldn’t be necessary, by the end of loop 3 I’d be stopped for missing the 37.5 mile 9 hours cutoff. I finally made it to Fast Fred's Cafe- yeah- cool name for a race aid station- and took a break, ate, drank and talked a bit to a volunteer Alison, who I had met at another race. I finally headed out and immediately felt better. All of those symptoms went away and other than worrying about race cutoffs, I was sure I could cover the 50 miles. I ran down the hill to the cornfields and saw Theresa and Kurt who I met a couple of years ago at the Pisgah Mt 50k (I ran most of the race with Theresa) and it was a nice pick me up to the last couple of miles in the loop. I hadn’t been watching my time, but was satisfied to make it to the end of the loop in 5:30, a 3 hour loop two.

Loop 3- Miles 25-37.5

My mission here was clear- I needed to get to the end of this loop in 3.5 hours to make the 9 hour cutoff. Didn’t seem like a big deal but my loop two was 30 minutes slower than loop 1 and if that happened again I’d be pushing it. Nothing special was happening but I noticed I started to feel cramping in my legs. I took more salt pills, but almost halfway through the loop I had a major cramp that I needed to work out. I did it as I walked, sort of dragging the offending leg along on the side so I didn’t stop. There was no way I was going to stop and lose more time. The cramps never came back fully but I did need to back off every once and a while when I felt it coming on during this loop. Worse, after the mile 32 aid station, I twisted my ankle on some roots and then fell like a ton of bricks. I ran on, and kept what felt like a decent pace. I was sure I would make the cutoff but didn’t look at my watch over the last few miles and was very happy to finish loop 3 in 8:30, another 3 hour loop. I was pretty stoked to nail two consecutive loops at similar time which made me think I was managing pace well.

Loop 4- Miles 37.5-50

People kept calling this one the victory lap. For a change- I was sure I could finish the last loop in the 4 hours I had to meet the race cutoff. I sort of struggled getting my act together and joked around a bit with Dean, Scott and another guy who I hadn’t met and finally got moving. My only goal was to finish, and not get hurt. I moved along the same pace as the previous 2 loops and felt excited. Unfortunately, around mile 7 of this loop the spot on my ankle I twisted earlier started to get sore so I reduced the amount of running I was going to do to minimize the pain. It was sort of too late, but it hurt and I didn’t want to push it. It got dark and I eased off more as even with my flashlight I didn’t want to trip any more. It was damn exciting to finally come out on the final field to the finish line. I had run on this course likely 40+ times over the year so this was so familiar that it made it that much more fun, There were flares set up in the dark to light the way in- I ran by my friends and saw that my kids had driven down to cheer me on at the finish. I was so satisfied that I ran quickly through the finish line and didn’t notice my time. I did stop my watch so was able to see it a few minutes later. 11:39. Last lap of 3:09, which I was pretty pleased with having eased off a bit on the final loop.

I went to pick up my finishers jacket- which I can say is something that helped motivate me to finish. First, I was told I had been marked as a DNF in the marathon- then after having my kids vouch for me being who I was, I then was told they didn’t have an extra large, only 2x. After looking forward to this moment all year my face dropped- I was going to get a jacket that wouldn't fit and I wouldn't be able to wear. My friends told me that the sizes ran small and frankly, in a minute or two I realized the effort was the key and the jacket was just a piece of clothing. Hopefully I conveyed my thanks properly to the volunteers who had to wait around for me to drag myself across the line- after initially feeling disappointed. (And the 2x fits anyhow! )

I finished nearly an hour ahead of the cutoff, which was very satisfying. The weather was great, the trails in great condition and the GAC and volunteers did everything to support and encourage me throughout the race. Most of my friends beat or attained their goals. Pretty fully stocked aid stations and enthusiastic volunteers. The funniest moment of the day was when I got to the 45 mile aid station, and was standing around thinking of what I wanted to eat. While talking to the volunteer, I mumbled something to the effect that I really should just leave and finish. With that, Gilly, coach at the GAC, bellowed out “Yeah, Get out of here and finish!” As I left he yelled out “One more thing, RUN FAST!” Now that’s a coach ! A truly fun and memorable day………………

The year has been sort of a struggle- started off great, awesome weather over the winter and then starting in March I was having stomach issues. Those went away but since May, I have had hamstring issues that have slowed and finally stopped my running. I ran through it for a while, but I’d rather stop and recover to full running than continue to battle mediocre running. Anyhow….the point here is its time to state what it’s all about, what’s the point, where’s the goal of this running. So unveiling for the first time on the web…..September 27, 2013, I’ll be attempting the Bear 100 race. Cricket, cricket….OK- so its just me here but humoring myself….I’ll be age 50 in 2013 and I’d like to do something. Something I think is life changing, something that digs deep into the soul and looks at the kind of heart, head spirit I have. An event that so awesome and beautiful that I’ll never forget it. So what? The Bear clocks in with the following- 100 miles, and over 21,000 feet of elevation gain with a 36 hour time limit. New to Ultra’s? No matter- to anybody, that should sounds nuts. To me it is. Sounds overwhelming. Feels impossible. But... Why Not? Why can’t I get out on the start line and start jogging, then walk then crawl and then cry and roll into the fetal position and then crawl 100 miles? Why the hell not. So today for me starts 461 days of Why Not? for me. The good news- I won’t be going this totally alone. Good friend Mike Saporito will be doing the Bear and good friend Dean Hugo will be crewing for us. Now that’s a good friend. Two miserable creeps spitting venom late into the night and volunteering to help. Good man! One final note- the date of the finish- 9/28/13 is the 10 year anniversary of my dads passing. The night before he died he looked at pictures of my first NH hikes and totally to my surprise, told me he wished he could have joined me. Not a nature lover or athlete- it shocked me. I’ll be taking dad long with me on the Bear, Nuff said for now. My running is below average, my head is a mess, and my body is breaking down. Think I can’t do it? Why Not?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was trying to think of some witty name for this blog post- but frankly had nothing.

It’s been a pretty good year of training so far; I’ve done more runs over 15 miles this year than I ever did while younger and training for the marathon and have done several 20 mile training runs. That, coupled with the easy course in Weston, Ma. seemed to spell 50k PR.

To get to the point- I finished in 6:30, about a 12 minute PR for 50k. Should be happy- I guess- but really I am just more pissed off than usual. A longer race report follows.

The Trail Animals Running Club puts on this race annually; in the inaugural last year I dropped at 19.65 miles in the cold rain. This year- beautiful weather with forecasts in the mid 50’s with sun and breeze. The course was changed to a 5 loop course (5 10k loops if you need the math done). There are a few inclines but no real hills, there are sections of roots and rocks and mud but overall it’s a fast course, as fast as you will see on trails.

Loop1- I settled back in a 10:40 per mile pace and tried to go easy and hold on and avoid burning out on the fast course. No issues and ahead of my 6:15 goal pace.

Loop 2- Running alone I dialed it back a drop to 10:45 pace and stayed right on that for the whole 10k loop. Again, no issues and ahead of schedule

Loop 3- Dead on 10:45 pace to approximately mile 16, over half way to 50k. I took some fluid and a gel and felt a cramp rip through my gut that stopped me in my tracks. For the last couple of miles on the loop I walked and jogged in trying to figure out what was going on.

Loop 4- At the end of Loop 3 I met Dean who had finished the ½ marathon earlier (nice job btw!) and I swapped bottles out and headed back out mumbling about stomach issues. I immediately felt cramping in my gut when trying to run and thought about walking back out a mile into the loop. I kept moving; each time I drank or ate more cramps ripped through my stomach. I stopped trying to eat/drink about 2 miles into the loop. Of course, dehydration was setting in and I started to cramp in the legs pretty badly. Bottom line- no fun, stumbling and miserable. I dropped average pace down to about 12:20 but was moving way slower than that.

Loop 5- final loop. Met Dean again and stood there wondering whether to bother going out. He reminded me I was still moving at a better average pace than my PR and to go out for it- made sense. I took off my waist bottle pack- it felt great to get it off my stomach. Dean also gave me a full bottle to drink and I was able to down it and start to rehydrate and felt none of the cramps I had before. I left the pack, grabbed a bottle in hand, ate a few chips and headed out. Oddly, I started running and ran through the majority of the loop- slowly, but way faster than on loop 4 where I walked and jogged brutally slowly. Although I bonked a bit around mile 29-30 since I had no more drink (and also left all my food in the pack back at the start) I finished in 6:30, passing a few people along the last loop and feeling a little better about the day.

So a PR- should I feel good about that? Eh, no. This was a simple course and I was trained. The fact is that since having Gall Bladder removal surgery last year there are times in these races and long training runs when my stomach heads south (reminder to self, the Oil Creek disaster of ’11) and it trashes my runs. Still working through it but I’d like to put one of those “it all went well” days together. I don’t have doubts I would have been 10-15 minutes faster without the issues (still slow by most standards but decent for me) but hey it was what it was. Back to the trails. This was an easy race and there is much tougher work ahead. On the up side- I finished April running 170 miles, my best since I started running again in 2010 and hopefully the start of some higher consistent miles.

Great race put on by Trail Animals.

Congrats to all who ran and finished well, especially Dean and Mike who finished his first 50k and ran very well.

Next race up- Finger Lakes 50 Miler June 30, with a little something extra planned early in June as training…..

After finishing my first 50 last year and starting to run much more consistently I’ve put together a loose plan for 2012 which includes a number of races and preparation for my main goals for 2013. To start, my 2012 calendar looks like the following (so far):

All of the above is subject to getting into the races, and any training race could be substituted for something else as it nears. The goal for 2012 has a few facets: 1) build up miles. 2) Run a stronger 50 Mile Race and 3) being prep for my 2013 goal.

New races to me are the TARC Summer and Fall Classics, the Finger Lakes 50, the StoneCat Ale 50 and the Across the Years 24 hour race. Across the Years is my first race travelling long distance; it’s a multi day race in Phoenix. I’ll be doing the 24 hour single day race, a new long for being on my feet as well. I’ll also be travelling to the Finger Lakes 50, driving that is, for two nights of camping.

Loose thoughts are to do around 40 miles per week in the winter and spring and them ramp up to 50 or more during the summer and the remainder of the year. I have big plans for 2013, a real challenge for me so I need to build up one more year of good base mileage and start to do some elevation later in the year. If I stay healthy through the year, then 2013 will shape up well.

After and up and down year running; I was preparing to finish off the year with an attempt at a 50 miler, the Stone Mill 50 starting in Gaithersburg Maryland. The day turned out as up and down as the rest of the year.

Starting is the easy part?

After getting into Maryland and to sleep at 130am, I woke up at 4 and was ready to head to the race at 5- the start was 15 minutes from my father in law’s house. About 15 minutes later I realized I was driving north instead of south. I turned around, and tried to get the start on the GPS. Bad news was that although the address was Gaithersburg, when doing address searches you needed to use Montgomery Village. I learned this post race. Anyhow, I arrived at the race at 545 and ran to sign up. Relaxed as I saw a long line and assumed I had plenty of time to check in and gear up. At 550, I registered and ran back to my car to grab my gear. As I fiddled with my pack and shoes, I heard a cheer and people started running. I only started 100 yards behond and it was on.

Getting locked up

For the first 7 miles, the course moved along a good amount of single track. With a big size race, there was a lot of slow going and waiting as we crossed small creeks. The trail crossed some roads, went under overpasses but was pretty runnable. At mile 8 or so, we came out to a road crossing, with a light. That went ok, and there was a 2 mile run down the main road to bridge the gap from the Seneca Creek Trail to the Muddy Branch trail system. I started to notice that at this point my legs were cramping everywhere- calves, quads, hammy’s- you name it. I was having trouble running and my legs felt sore all over. Not good for mile 12. I struggled through to mile 20 and the Pennyfield Lock aid station on the C&O Canal. I spent a few minutes here hydrating extra, and eating and stretching. Twenty in and things weren’t going well, but my pace was holding steady for a sub 13 hour which was my goal. Nothing impressive with sub 13, but my realistic goal.

I’ll take any help I can get

The next miles were along the canal towpath; I figured these would be easy. Here I learned that for the rest of the race, my sore quads were going to make running flats painful and slow. At the Stone Mill aid station, I was given some Coconut water to help with the cramping. Nasty, but it seemed to help with cramping, though the soreness remained. I spent the next few miles moving along with a guy who had done 5 100 milers and lots of 50’s. We ran on and off and eventually I tried to push on past so as to not get too used to walking. It was recovery number one, I felt ok and was moving better, but as the day went on it got hotter and the course went through some open fields and I started to drag again. It felt like a death march and I was resigned to dropping at the next full aid station. I couldn’t imagine a painful walk for another 20 miles. Ten minutes later, a guy stopped as he passed and we discussed the trouble we were having and I hinted at dropping. He asked if it would be weird if he prayed for me; I was groggy and wasn’t sure I heard right at first but at that point I said sure. He prayed; hoping for my recovery to finish the race and for future good training. We shook hands and he went off…lo and behold 5 minutes later I started jogging. And then running. I noticed an uptick in my energy and started a good pattern of moving faster. OK, coincidence, and funny story but the timing of it all was good. I hit the next aid station and met up with a group of people prepared to move on.

Death by one cut?

We ran the flats and downs and walked the ups and things were looking better, though the quads were still shot. It was then that Bobby, one of the group mentioned we had better move to make the cutoff into the 39 mile aid station. I was surprised, I was watching my pace per mile and the cutoff should not have been an issue but according to him we were challenging it so I started to run more. There was no way I was going to be pulled. We left the rest of our group, moved well and could finally see the climb to the 39 mile aid station at Rt 355. It was here I realized why the cutoff was a concern- my Garmin GPS watch read 41 miles, and I turned it on well after the start due to my late arrival. Ultra’s are notorious for not having exact mileage and the consensus was we were already a couple of miles more in than expected. I pulled my headlamp, put on an extra shirt, drank some energy drink and went on.

Going back to school….

Bobby and I worked together until the out and back section north of Watkins Mill Road and I decided to use the downhills to gain some speed and move on. I felt great knowing I was going to finish but wanted to get it done. I caught up to a woman, Marina, and after talking a bit realized it was somebody from the Ultra List, an email group of ultra runners that I subscribe to. She has been recovering recently so was going slowly (my pace) but has been around Ultra’s for many years and has run as fast as sub 8 for a 50 miler. It was good to spend time to learn a lot about Ultra running and Ultra runners- she knew many of the greats and had good stories to tell about them. We worked our way to “the” water crossing. There was a river we needed to cross twice- it had a rope across it. The gentleman who was volunteering suggested going to the right- though it was below the surface the other side had slick rocks. I jumped in- some cold water? Who cared. We made it to the turn around of the last out and back section. Great aid station! Fresh hot roast beef, turkey and ham wraps and hot soup. We ate- too much and then headed back. We moved briskly but admittedly we didn’t push all out. We finally hit the last road back to the Watkins Mill high school and ran around the corner to the finish. We took the long way, adding more distance, as the route to the woods had been unmarked. We finished around 13:49.

I was pretty disappointed with the time. It was well over 13 hours. My GPS had died at mile 44 so I was not sure as to distance or time and didn’t ask. At the finish, runners all around came up to us and said their GPS watches (with longer battery life) all read closer to 55 miles than 50! With that, I figured I passed mile 50 before 13 hours and was happy with the effort and not unhappy with the time. Unofficially, I came in 158 of 178 and there were also a lot of drops.

Today- sore as heck. Sore during race means more sore after. Time to figure out why the cramping and soreness so early in the race, and plan next years races.

As for the Stone Mill 50- amazing value. For 35 dollars you got a souvenir flashlight, VERY well marked course, lots of aid stations and volunteers. The course had more road and was not always as remote as many trail races, but it was very runnable and nice for the most part.

Last year I felt I wimped out at mile 53 and regretted dropping for a year. This weekend, a bad stomach forced me to drop at mile 31. No regrets this year; there was no other decision to be made.

Originally, my race report was going to be this “OC 2011, Disaster, DNF”. But while on a run an hour ago I realized that 1) something is to be learned from anything and 2) somebody somewhere will appreciate a good stomach distress story. But I will try and keep it brief and clean. And brief.

The first 14.5 miles went well. I was out fast and leading a group of runners in the dark through the early hills. Into the first aid station I flew down some steep hills passing a few runners, and after blasting through the station I passed about 5 more. I started to notice leg cramping like at Pisgah so I backed off the pace a little and gave up some places and wanted to be sure to hold back some energy. At the 14.5 mile aid station (and turnaround on the loop) I caught up to the group of runners ahead. I could tell something was off. Last year I knocked down a bunch of grilled cheese but this year after one bite I was nauseous. I grabbed a bunch of food for my pack and moved on and noticed I got very cold.

As soon as I started to climb I felt queasier and as I ran down the hills it got worse. First I started walking; nothing got better so I ran again. This time I started to cramp. Between mile 16 and 19 I had a few cramps that left me on the side of the trail doubled over. Finally, I tried to go to the bathroom but nothing. I passed a shelter at mile 20 but moved on since my failed bathroom experiment led me to believe I couldn’t go. A mile later I ran into the woods to go to the bathroom. After finishing- I knew that this was not the cause of the issues. I moved on, and a bit later my stomach grumbled the longest gnarliest gurgle. I threw my pack down and ran down in to the woods- sparse woods at that. I could not find a big enough tree to hide behind and the trail curved so hiding was a real issue. Since it was a steep downhill I needed to hang on to the tree to keep from falling backwards. Then I realized that I was wearing loose shorts on top of my compression shorts and hoped I wasn’t trashing them while they lay on the ground. Long story short- it was quick, painful and downright ugly. But I thought it may be over.

Back down the trail, the cramping continued and I walked along. I finally got to the 23 mile aid station, threw my pack at the volunteer and ran for the porta potty. After another unfriendly episode- I hung at the aid station for a while. I tried to eat and drink but it didn’t sit well. I finally headed back to the hills and tried to get back in the race. On the first downhill- cramps and nausea started when I ran and I finally knew the day was over. I could not run/eat or drink so another 31 miles wasn’t sensible. I just wanted to get back to the start. I ran into somebody I knew leaving the woods so I finished the first loop with him. At the 31 mile aid station, I decided to give it one last shot. If I could tolerate food and drink, I would head back out. A cup of ginger ale and a few crackers in and I was running for the bathroom. Game over. After coming out I dropped from the race. I finished the first 50k loop in 9 hours.

I missed Dean’s finish of his first 50k Ultra after losing 95 pounds and starting to train. Beastly performance by Dean. I was indisposed at the time, and for most of the night.

Sometimes, things just happen- after reviewing the internet when returning home we found that the details of my experience- minute details, were mentioned frequently for those who had gall bladders removed.

The positive- after uploading my watch data it had me at 9 hours for 50k, but had 808 as the moving time so I lost 45 or so minutes “messing around”. That also does not account for the time I wanted to run but walked since my stomach hurt. Bottom line was I got a decent workout- the second 50k in 3 weeks which is new for me and leaves me ready to start training for my November 19 50 miler. As long as my stomach settles and normalizes….

This was going to be my third 50K, but first time repeating a race. I was sure I could beat last years time at Pisgah as last year I went through to just finish (and was happy with that for sure) but I didn’t think I was up to a personal best 50K for this race. I didn’t do any tapering and in fact had run an all out 5k 3 nights before that left my legs still a bit sore on the start line. The purpose of this race was a final long workout for 100K race (62 miles) next month. Short results- finished in 7:37, not a best at 50K by far but a good effort in my mind.

The long version, broken down by stages as the race was clearly three different set of efforts for me.

Miles 1-9All felt good though the first 8 miles, keeping a relaxed running pace and walking the occasional hill into the 8 mile aid station. At that point you take a road that goes up and turns a couple of times fairly steeply. I felt good on the climb, but as soon as we headed back into the woods to run my legs felt dead and crampy.

Miles 10-20That dead feeling lasted the better part of these middle miles. I’d try and run and another part of my legs would get ready to cramp, so I’d slow down and walk. Finally heading up Pisgah Mt., the cramps got worse and I had to stop to stretch and to yell foul words into the air. Actually, I mumbled them angrily as I didn’t want to sounds like a lunatic to others in the area. I finally crested Pisgah Mt. and started to feel slightly better, but still had to mix up walking and running into the 20 mile aid station at Kilburn Pond.

Miles 21-31I arrived at the aid station and realized I had been drinking only Gatorade and didn’t use any Nuun electrolyte tabs during the middle miles so I switched back. I also waited a minute or two to rest my legs as I knew the next 5 miles were “easy” and I hoped to be able to recover. Something worked- I started to run and then ran a bit more and was able to run up some of the shorter hills. I finished the loop, refilled my bottles with water and Nuun tabs and ran fairly hard along the road to the next trailhead. I ran all the easy stuff and some of the hills but walked up the steeper sections of Hubbard and Davis Hills. I was hoping to pass somebody- I hadn’t seen anybody in hours and felt it would be nice while feeling good to see some results. After cresting the final hill I let fly and passed a couple of people in the woods, offered some encouragement and ran out to the final road portion. I ran the whole road until hitting one longer uphill, which started a small cramp. After reaching the top I started running again and ran through to the finish line, passing a couple of runners (who were walking it in) and a friend of theirs near the final turn.

I was able to finish strong and in fact would not have minded a longer race since I left so much running out of the middle miles. All in all mission accomplished, a 31 mile workout and session to work through some hydration and nutrition issues.

Been one of those years. But it’s always one of those years. Knee pain followed by gall bladder removal surgery put me off the trails for June and July after a personal best at 31 miles in May. It’s been a scramble to train and recover fitness, let alone try and improve on fitness levels at this time in 2010. Now, I am 78 days away from looking back on the year. After 8 months the next 78 days will let me know if all those nights on the treadmill and weekends in the park end up paying dividends, or end up sending me into another year trying to fix the mess.

What’s coming up in the next 78 days??

9/2-9/17 Continue to train and throw in as many long efforts as possible

9/18 Pisgah Mt. Trail Races 50k

9/19-10/7 Taper. Ride the fine line of working out but not trashing the legs

10/8 Oil Creek 100k

10/9-10/14 Race recovery

10/15-10/30 Final long training for year

11/1-11/18 Taper. Ride the fine line of working out but not trashing the legs. Again

11/19 Stone Mill 50 Mile Race

Three Ultra’s a 50k, 100k and 50 Miler. Pisgah is a training race and my goal is to finish, take it easy and not get hurt. No personal bests there. Oil Creek is the big event for the year. After dropping last year at 53.5 miles, only death is a viable reason for not finishing this year. And even that’s no excuse. Stone Mill has its own special meaning, but I am not looking that far until Oil Creek is done.

I wish I had more time to make up for the lost long runs in June and July; I wish it was 9/18 to get the ball rolling already. Current leg issues have caused a cut back in total running miles, although total miles have not been cut back. I have run and power hiked alternatively (for those who don’t know, power hike is a fancy stupid term for walking fast). Actually, the last two weeks have averaged around 50+ miles per week and it’s likely I’ll end up the rest of the training year that way. Unprecedented numbers for me so the chances of finishing are better but….chances of being fast (fat, slow, 48 year old fast) are very low.

When the year is done I am hoping to have completed 4 Ultra’s and set myself up to try for my goals for 2012. But today is just day one of the final 78 of 2011……..

About Tuco

After years of only hiking due to running injuries I found out that I could participate in Ultra events. At age 47 in 2010, I competed and completed my first event. Living in NH, there are tons of opportunities to take advantage of the outdoors and this is my new passion......hopefully one day I can do it well.